Cyclonic comminuting and dehydration machines have been in use to grind various materials while reducing the moisture content in the material. These cyclonic comminuting and dehydration machines are typically formed with an upper cylindrical portion into which is fed a flow of air and a flow of material. The material to be ground becomes entrained in the air flow circling within the cylindrical portion and moves with substantial velocity while in the machine. The cyclonic comminuting and dehydration machine is also formed with a conical portion joined to the cylindrical portion and extending downwardly therefrom. The bottom of the conical portion is formed with a central opening through which the ground material is discharged. The air flow is discharged along with any moisture carried by the air through a central opening in the top of the cylindrical portion.
In one form of the cyclonic comminuter, the material to be ground is entrained in the air flow before being introduced into the cylindrical portion of the cyclonic comminuter, such as is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,132, granted to Frank Rowley, Jr. on Aug. 17, 1993. The material is fed through an air lock mechanism into an air flow created by a fan so as to have a substantial velocity before being introduced into the cylindrical portion of the machine. A variation of the cyclonic comminution and dehydration machine can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,594, issued on Dec. 6, 2005, to Francis D. Polifka, wherein the air is compressed and fed into the cylindrical portion of the cyclonic comminuter under pressure. The material to be ground is introduced into the cylindrical portion through a separate infeed opening, preferably through the top plate of the cylindrical portion of the machine.
In the aforementioned Polifka patent, the air is introduced into the cylindrical portion of the cyclonic comminuter through a vertically oriented slot formed into the sidewall of the cylindrical portion. The air inlet is formed at an angle through the side wall to direct the flow of air into a counterclockwise direction, when viewed downwardly from the top of the cylindrical portion. A deflector is attached to the interior face of the side wall in front of the air inlet slot, i.e. immediately upstream of the air inlet slot, to deflect the air flow having material entrained therein away from the air inlet slot, thus guarding the air flow entering the cylindrical chamber. The air inlet slot is fixed with respect to the cylindrical chamber as the air inlet is a defined opening in the structure of the side wall of the cylindrical chamber. Three or four of the air inlets are spaced equidistantly around the circumference of the interior side wall of the cylindrical chamber.
Another representative example of such prior art grinding devices utilizing an air flow can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,562,753 granted on Jul. 31, 1951, to Conrad Trost, wherein an anvil grinder includes a cyclonic chamber in communication with a grinding chamber. An upper portion of the cyclone chamber extends upwardly through the grinding chamber such that the grinding chamber surrounds an upper end of the cyclonic chamber but is separated therefrom. Only the upper ends of the grinding and cyclone chamber are in communication along an upper passageway extending around and above the entrance to an air discharge stack. This grinding machine does not have an upper portion of the cyclonic chamber that is cylindrical and separated from the grinding chamber, so the cyclonic chamber does not augment a vortex air flow created in the grinding chamber. The ground material in the Trost machine must drastically change direction of movement and be entrained in the air flow to go from the grinding chamber to the cyclone chamber in order to rise over the upper end of the cyclonic chamber.
Moving air with material entrained therein to be ground within the cyclonic comminuter causes wear on the interior surface of the side wall of the cylindrical chamber, particularly downstream of a deflector, as is disclosed in the aforementioned Polifka patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,594. As a result, portions or the entire side wall of the cylindrical would require replacement due to excessive wear. The replacement of all or a portion of the cylindrical side wall is a difficult task to accomplish as the weld between the original cyclonic comminuter structure and the replacement structure must be air tight due to the utilization of rapidly moving air under pressure. The size of the air inlet slot can vary when pressure of the air inflow is desired to be changes. Accordingly, the configuration of the air inlet slot in the Polifka patent is limited to a relatively small range of pressure that can be fed effectively into the comminuter.
It would be desirable to provide a cyclonic comminuting and dehydrating machine that can be utilized in the grinding of materials to provide an apparatus for effective replacement of portions of the side wall subject to excessive wear from the materials entrained within the air flow in the cylindrical portion of the machine. It would also be desirable to provide a structure through which the size of the air inlet opening can be varied to effectively change pressure of the air being introduced into the cylindrical chamber.